The benefits of in-film branding go beyond just the on-screen presence of the brand. While the big-ticket Indian movies can see as many as 15-20 brand associations, even Hollywood movies, especially the franchises, are getting Indian companies to come on board for promotional associations. Brands do promotional associations where they get to use movie characters or clippings to run their own advertisement which in turn helps movies get publicity and save on their marketing budgets. In other cases brands are intrinsically imbibed into movie scripts for placements in-film.

For Kabali’, the brand owners leveraged Rajinikanth’s title ‘superstar’ image in their commercials. While Cadbury Five Star “Kabali” commercial featured the Ramesh-Suresh characters with some scenes from the movie and ending with the tag line ‘Superstar’s Five Star”, AirAsia, the official airline partner for “Kabali” announced a ‘Fly like a Superstar’ promotion. On the other hand, Kerala-based company Muthoot Fincorp partnered with movie to roll out exclusive silver coins with an embossed image of Rajinikanth as seen in the movie. Myntra & Amazon, the online fashion retailer started new campaign addressing the customer to dress like Kabali and become the style icon while going to watch the film.

VIP 2 is a sequel to the 2014 hit movie that introduces the popular character – Raghuvaran. He returns yet again but this time with a whole new story. While Saranya Ponvannan, Amala Paul, Samuthirakani and Vivek are part of Part 2 as well, joining the team this time is Kajol. The Bollywood actress has teamed up with Dhanush and Soundarya Rajinikanth for the first time for her second Tamil cinema and marks her return to Kollywood after twenty years. Dhanush has won 3 National Film Awards and 7 Filmfare Awards while Kajol is the recipient of Six Filmfare Awards and a Padma Shri awardee, the fourth highest civilian honour of the country. VIP-2 is schedule for release in the first half of August 2017.

Lending branding presence in VIP-2 are e-commerce player, SHOP CJ, a joint venture between the South Korean home shopping major as their movie, Ticket New – the movie ticketing e-commerce platform, PVR cinemas,Indias largest Multiplex partner ,TVH , one of India’s top real estate developers and builders in Chennai and Hike Messenger . : Hike has created an array of stickers and filters for fans to enjoy the multi-starrer VIP2. Hike users can bring conversations alive with animated stickers of Dhanush as he plays the angry young man or Kajol as she tosses her head in style. Share stickers showing the romance between Dhanush and his lady love, Amala or spice up chats with classic dialogues from Dhanush. There are 36 stickers to choose from in Tamil, Telegu and English.

Hike users can also try out the fun live filters featuring Dhanush’s signature helmet and Kajol’s cool dark glasses.

Millions of fans are eagerly awaiting the release of VIP2, a sequel to the 2014 Tamil-language film Velaiilla Pattadhari, and directed by Soundarya Rajnikanth. The film stars Dhanush, Amala Paul, Vivek, Saranya Ponvannan, Samuthirakani and Kajol who is making a comeback in a Tamil film after 20 years. Dhanush as Raghuvaran in VIP2 chooses to be an entrepreneur and follow his passion. This is reflective of the youth in India who are increasingly pursuing their ambitions.

Commenting on the partnership, the Hike spokesperson said “We are excited to be associated with VIP2, a film which is expected to be amongst this year’s biggest and most awaited. We are creating a fun social experience for VIP2 where people can share stickers, try filters and personify their favourite characters”.
“We are delighted to partner with Hike which is a special place for the youth. We look forward to people celebrating the film with colorful, fun stickers and live filter.

A good placement or co promotional deal definitely helps the brand break the clutter as well as smartly create a good recall value. Media planners say that product placements and co-promotional deals will grow faster as soon as the producers understand the power of this medium and will start benefiting them commercially and creatively. Some brands are even earmarking budgets to be spent on film branding opportunities leveraging their association with the film not only on various media platforms, but take it down to product packaging and the distribution and retail level. Experts believe that if done well, film branding can be the most cost-effective way of reaching out to the target audience for the consumers get exposed to the brand at a time when they are closely involved with the medium.

Conventional forms of advertising are losing significance today with various platform’s vying for viewer’s attention. It’s all about disruption and Cinema is just too large a platform to ignore. Nearly 80-85 per cent of all movie goers are 15-35 years old and this is the group most advertisers are talking to these days. It’s a high impact medium and the shelf life is infinite. The benefits of in-film branding go beyond just the on-screen presence of the brand. In-film placement is not a media campaign that’s going to go on air and then off. A film has multiple touch-points – cinema, promos, songs, digital, satellite premier, VOD (video on demand) in hotels, pay per view, DTH, in-flight, DVD release. With in-film placement, a brand can’t get zapped by the remote and people can’t click on ‘skip ad’.

With in-film branding, the brand lives on as the impact lasts forever. It is telecast on satellite channels with repeat views. And when it’s done through a song, there’s an even bigger advantage because the song gets played many more times than the film gets viewed.

About the Producers

V. Creations is a venture of S. Thanu film producer and distributor, known for his films produced in Tamil cinema. Kalaipuli S. Thanu is one of the most successful producers in the Tamil film industry with two of his films, Kabali and Theri are two of Tamil’s highest grossing films of all times. Southern cinema and star-driven Tamil films have emerged as among the most successful Indian content in the last decade, finding both national reach and viewers. V. Creations had partnered with E-commerce giant Amazon making Amazon Prime Video India the exclusive subscription streaming home for two of the Tamil film industry’s highest grossing films. This was the first time that Tamil films of this demand and popularity was available on a streaming platform.